A potentially important detail in the battle currently being waged between Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers: Rodgers has turned down opportunities to extend or renegotiate his contract, according to Adam Schefter and Rob Demovsky of ESPN.
Rodgers, 37, has long said he wants to play his entire career in Green Bay. A contract extension would seemingly give Rodgers what he desires – security past 2021, and a chance to all but eliminate Jordan Love from the team’s long-term plans.
But if Rodgers is so “disgruntled” with the Packers that he hasn’t wanted to negotiate on a new deal, then it’s increasingly possible the 2020 NFL MVP is really done in Green Bay and wants to move on. This would be much more than just a media play to gain leverage in contract discussions.
Rodgers’ current deal has three years left, but the guaranteed money is done and the Packers can save a substantial amount on the salary cap in 2022 by moving on. An extension – or even some kind of simple restructure – would help financially tie Rodgers to the Packers for years into the future.
The Packers needed salary cap space throughout the start of the offseason but didn’t touch Rodgers’ deal. They could have converted a roster bonus or some of his base salary into a signing bonus to create space but didn’t, instead choosing to restructure the contracts of seven other veterans to get under the cap.
An extension could have easily lowered his cap hit in 2021. As it stands now, Rodgers has the NFL’s biggest cap number this season at over $37 million.
Jay Glazer of Fox Sports said he believes the fracture between Rodgers and the Packers is about more than just the contract and he doesn’t want to return to Green Bay.
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